It is very important to keep the mouth cavity clean, especially the cleanness of the teeth. Most people brush their teeth after waking up or before going to bed. However, the time the teeth erosion mostly happens is after a meal because the acid concentration within the mouth is constantly increased, and if the teeth do not be cleaned right after the meal, the teeth might easily become damaged. Although brushing the teeth is one of the commonest ways to keep the teeth clean, it only can clean the surfaces of the teeth and has difficulty in cleaning the slits between the teeth. Therefore, the cleanness of the teeth slits becomes more important.
The traditional way for cleaning the teeth slits is to use a toothpick. However, since the toothpick is made of a relatively harder material and also has a larger diameter, it might widen the teeth slits after a long-term usage, and the widened teeth slits not only look not beautiful, but also might easily have the food residues stuck therein. Therefore, the dentist now recommends using the dental floss to clean the teeth slits. U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,892 disclosed that a holding piece is respectively mounted at the two ends of a dental floss for being held by the user to clean the teeth slits, thereby achieving a more efficient cleaning operation. And, this architecture is also benefit for manufacture. The holding pieces can be mounted on a bundle of dental floss at a preset distance so as the dental floss can be separated into multiple singly used lengths. This not only provides the user the basis to cut off the dental floss, but also reaches the purpose of mass production.
However, the above patent still has some disadvantages:
1. The length of the holding piece is so short that the user's fingers have to go deep into the mouth for cleaning the teeth slits, and since the fingers are easily contaminated by dirt and bacteria, it is easy to transfer the dirt and bacteria into the mouth as using the dental floss, so as to endanger the oral hygiene.
2. The fingers will need to pull and drag with this short dental floss inside the mouth, and for users with thick fingers, the operation difficulty might be further increased.